Lucky but Mad

Mr. Warrior was driving me to work this morning. We were in the right-most lane of a large street that has two lanes of traffic going in both directions. We came upon a T-intersection with a one-way stop. The traffic going in our direction and the oncoming traffic do not stop. A car that had been stopped at the stop sign in the T-intersection began pulling out, not realizing we were headed towards them. Mr. Warrior immediately started to hit the brakes and pull to the left lane to avoid being hit. The other car then slowed down. I thought to myself, Oh good, she saw us and now she’s attempting to stop. But, her car kept pulling out, albeit much slower than she had been traveling before. At this point, Mr. Warrior floored the brakes and swerved into the left turn lane for the traffic in the other direction where we were able to stop completely. We must have sat there with our car facing the wrong direction, stunned and shocked for about a minute, probably a minute and a half before the world seemed normal again. We were lucky there were no other cars near us in any direction when it all happened. I looked around to see where the other driver was. I turned around and saw the car through our back window. The car had just completed finishing the left turn and the driver was casually driving away. As if nothing ever happened.

It has taken me all morning to calm down from the shock and the anger of it all. I can understand a mistake. You pull out not realizing there is a car coming, you try to stop and hope the other driver is also maneuvering to avoid being hit. Maybe you avoid an accident, maybe you don’t. But how do you pull out into the street, see that the other car is almost right in front of you and not try to stop? Ok, let’s give you the benefit of the doubt. Maybe you are shook up, too and are not reacting in the best manner. Maybe you are a mother who didn’t sleep all night because your kid was sick. Maybe you are full of hormones because you’re infertile and have been trying for 5 years to have a baby and this is your 6^th and final IVF because you can’t afford it anymore financially or emotionally. Given all that, if you see that the car you almost got into an accident with, the car you forced into a lane for oncoming traffic, even if there was no oncoming traffic at that moment, wouldn’t you get out of the car and see if the people in the other car were ok? I suppose she could have just assumed we were not damaged because our car was not damaged, but it seems like an awfully callous assumption to make. Was it too much to ask for her to stick her head out the window and ask if everyone is ok? Maybe my expectations of total strangers are too high, but it’s maddening that someone could have acted in such an indifferent manner.